Des Vs. de

Question

Il y a des petites rues, et de jolies maisons blanches.Hi, I saw the sentence above in a book. Why it's not de petites rues ?! I thought when we have an adjective that comes before a noun, we should use de ! like de jolies maisonsHelp please.

Accepted Answer

Bonjour Amir,
‘jolies’ and ‘petites’ are two attributive adjectives or ‘adjectifs épithètes’ here. It means that they are part of a noun group and they describe (add a value to) a noun.
Here are some examples of noun group with attributive adjectives:
Un joli sac = a nice bag
Une belle écharpe = a beautiful scarf
 
Now, in a literary register or when using ‘proper French grammar’, if these adjectives are place ahead of the noun like in your example, it should be preceded by ‘de’ and not ‘des’. However, nowadays, it does happen to hear people say 'des'.
Il y a de grands immeubles et de jolies maisons = there are big tower blacks and beautiful houses
Il y a de beaux jardins = there are beautiful gardens
 
I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée!

Answer

Thank You Céline:)